In the haze and darkness, Michel opened his eyes atop the altar.
"Has it begun?" he asked.
"Yes."
Below the altar, Elder Pan Delong nodded, silently awaiting commands from the master of ceremonies.
In the quiet, only the faint sounds from beyond the thick steel and stone walls carried on endlessly, ticking and tocking as if they stretched to the end of ti itself.
A damp wind blew from afar.
"It's raining, huh..." Michel murmured as if in a daze.
"Yes."
"Just a nap, and it's already co to this?"
From the bonds of the altar, Michel lifted his cloudy eyes.
Countless sharp thorns and roots burst from his husk, wrapped around the throne representing the seat of God, and ultimately sunk one by one into the ground and stone beneath, connecting him with the vast Miracle Imprint as one.
Thus, from the depths of darkness ca a heavy pulse and heartbeat, like the tide.
With every beat, painful blood threads extended from Michel's pupils, overlapping and cloaking the aged eyes in crimson.
"I thought I could hold on for longer... It seems I really have grown old."
Michel murmured softly, his head drooping powerlessly as if he lacked even the strength to support his neck.
So weary.
He said, "What happens next—no, I should say, 'the outco'—is up to you, Pan Delong."
Below the altar, Elder Pan Delong's shoulders shook, and he couldn't help but step forward, his eyes widening, "Please don't talk about giving up..."
"I haven't given up—" Michel cut him off, telling him calmly, "Pan Delong, I haven't given up."
Pan Delong stood frozen in place.
"At this point, I am very ashad," the alchemist on the altar said. "I am no match for Mikhail."
"Even if I can fight him to a draw now, it's not because of my talent or effort, but because I have used every dirty trick. At any cost, by any ans..."
But this was his limit.
Even with his last bit of strength, he couldn't bridge the unseen abyss.
Countless attempts and prayers could only get him so far.
Michel said calmly, "From the past to the present, I have never beaten him even once."
Thus, filled with humiliation, he admitted this bloody truth.
Whether it was achievents, status, identity, or the woman he loved.
Looking back on a life of discontent and sorrow, those vivid mories were all etched with pale defeats.
He had pursued with all his might, challenged using every thod, only to fall into the abyss, laden with bitter fruit and pain.
The suffering of a shadow, unseen by those bathed in sunlight.
He had thought that after so many years, he could forget those humble pasts, cast them aside, and make everything seem insignificant. But now, recalling them was so deeply painful, so... unbearable!
He had never loathed failure so much, unable to accept even the most trivial defeat.
And he had never craved victory so fervently; even the most nial and insignificant victory would suffice...
"I am old now, Pan Delong. I can't take another step forward."
"But you—you all have a future and possibilities."
Michel lowered his head, pleading as humbly as a beggar, "Please, help beat him."
"Before I die, let try one more ti."
"I've lost countless tis in my life, but this ti... I want to win!"
In the silence, Pan Delong wanted to look away, unable to bear seeing his dear friend in such a pitiable state, but so force wouldn't allow him to avert his gaze.
It wouldn't let him scorn the thin and exhausted man.
Nor would it allow him to evade such a plea.
"You will win, Michel!" Pan Delong raised his head, telling him with a firmness as if declaring a sacred truth.
"I promise, we will win!"
At this, the alchemist atop the altar laughed softly.
"Thank you, Pan Delong."
He closed his eyes, calm and serene.
No worries remained.
Here, he offered his aged husk as a ritual sacrifice, emulating the inverted God who once offered himself. His consciousness sank once more into the storm of Source Substance and Miracle.
Driving the Miracle, he beca a Reflection of the Holy Spirits on Earth.
In that instant, Abnormal Hell · Teralocan thundered.
Endless thunderbolts erupted, striking at the Do Giant before them!
The 'Michael' from Arica and the 'Michael' from the Russian Federation—two nas of the sa origin, two martial brothers from the sa sect, two completely different destinies...
Carrying forty-two years of humiliation and resentnt, he once again stood in the arena, issuing a challenge to the unattainable 'Great Grandmaster'!
The Reflection of the Holy Spirits above the clouds opened its eyes.
Co on, Mikhail! Let us once again... decide the victor!
「. . .」
The heavens shook, and thunder roared.
The ground trembled ceaselessly. Blood rain wavered, swept into the Sky Do by the hurricane. Behind the ruptured clouds, colossal shadows collided, unleashing catastrophic tornadoes.
Huai Shi pressed himself against the window, stunned, gazing up at the intense flashes from above.
What on earth is happening? Are they going all out right from the start? Are the Do Giant and Abnormal Hell already entering their final battle?
The newbies on the ground trembled with fear.
Once again, they were ants beneath the feet of giants, clumsily dodging the fallout from above. Yet, they couldn't just turn back, wash up, and go to sleep; instead, they stubbornly burrowed deeper into Hell.
Huai Shi felt these people must have a screw loose. Including himself.
The Hell he saw along the way was no longer the dead silence of the past. It was as if it had been resurrected by war, revealing strands of a fierce, vicious atmosphere.
Beneath countless ruins, blood rain and Burning Wind prevailed.
Even through the carriage and wearing respirators, they could feel the terrifying toxicity and harm in the hurricane. The closer they got to the Central Tower, the more they could sense the scars once engraved upon this land—
even traces left from the wars between the Hell Workshop Masters and the Sea of Titans.
Nurous gigantic humanoid War Machines and various strange, bizarre corpses...
They lay scattered chaotically among the ruins, turned into stone statues by the Curse, yet still retaining the pain and despair from their final monts.
Now, they were all shattered.
But as everyone else grew numb to this, his heart was filled with vague doubt and confusion, and he couldn't pinpoint exactly what the problem was.
This continued until the truck thundered forward, and those remnants were thrown out of sight.
His heart jolted, and he suddenly realized. Those bodies and ruins... they had all fallen with their backs to the tower. It was as if they were... fleeing?
In his astonishnt, his vision blurred, and he couldn't help but clench his fists.
Amidst countless ruins and petrified corpses, through the swirling blood rain, he saw that eerie figure once again... Condra!
Behind the broken mask, myriad chanisms and gears erged.
He stared at Huai Shi's location, his lips moving as if to say sothing.
Then, he vanished without a trace—
It was only then that Huai Shi noticed August nearby.
August was staring fixedly at the direction where Condra had disappeared, until layers of ruins and debris, churned up by the truck's advance, obscured the view.
He was gripping the scabbard of the Short Knife in his hand tightly.
After a long, long ti, he finally loosened his grip...
He could see it too.
On the Iron Crystal Throne, Huai Shi had heard about their relationship.
It was like that of a father and son. Condra was the one who had raised August. When Condra was assimilated by Hell, August had been by his side. August even once told him that if it hadn't been for Condra, he would have been the one assimilated. He could understand the pain and helplessness in August's heart at this mont.
Huai Shi lowered his eyes, saying nothing.
The truck pressed on, speeding through the storm and high winds. What should have been a brief journey seed unbearably long. In this tumultuous Hell, everything was changing rapidly.
The ground heaved and then collapsed; the sky cracked and then nded.
Everything was engulfed by a surging tide.
It was as if everything teetered on the edge of a cliff, in a precarious balance.
But no one had anticipated the war would arrive so suddenly.
Right below the tower, as a violent shift in the earth's strata caused the truck to take a sharp turn, it collided head-on with a massive Synthetic Beast.
Amidst the loud crash and violent tremors, if not for the seat belts, everyone would have been thrown from their seats.
It was as though they had accidentally stumbled into a large contingent of Ivy Vine.
Artillery fire blazed towards them.
As they watched the gigantic Synthetic Beast plunging towards them, everyone's expression instantly changed.
No, they had truly breached Ivy Vine's "Offensive" route. Surprisingly, several Synthetic Beasts were guarding this location.
"God damn it, talk about eting around the corner!" Huai Shi exclaid in shock. "Is this so kind of youthful campus romance unfolding?"
"Unfortunately, you're already eighteen, your youth is past, and there are no campuses in Hell... though love, at least, can be pursued." August grasped the safety rope and gave Huai Shi a aningful look, still in the mood to joke. "If you could use your good looks to sway the enemy's main fighting force, that'd be quite an achievent."
"...Let's forgo that kind of rit!" Feeling the dangerous gaze of the teenage girl beside him, Huai Shi's hair stood on end. "You better not talk nonsense, or I'll sue you for slander!"
"The Departnt of Justice sure is scary!" Laughter erupted, and the tremors spread once again, plunging everyone into darkness.
The Hell Car God was back on the road.
The truck swerved abruptly, narrowly dodging the Synthetic Beast's attack. Then, with a burst of flas from its tailpipe, it zood under the feet of the colossal, statue-like Synthetic Beast, heading straight for the tower.
Behind the truck, countless pursuing drones lted into a nanite sequence, reconfiguring into Ivory Tower's war weapons, and lunged at Ivy Vine's Synthetic Beasts.
Giant Monsters and steel clashed, accompanied by explosions; flas rose once again from amidst the stormy rain.
No one had yet had a chance to catch their breath.
Suddenly, Living Bombs fell from the sky. Countless shrill screams erupted as man-made biological weapons spread their wings, soared into the sky, and dived towards the ground.
Streaks of intense fire shot up from the earth.
Shockwaves roiled.
Piercing alarms, signaling mortal danger, suddenly blared from within the carriage.
Just after bursting through the wall ahead, they saw arrays of the Eye of Nightmare deployed in the pouring rain, and several Synthetic Beasts, like squids, gliding through the blood rain.
Specialized biological bombs!
Dozens of tentacles thrashed about as they suddenly lunged at the truck. Targeting complete!
Such a dense formation and defense could no longer be described as a coincidence... Ivy Vine knew our location! No, they must have prepared so thoroughly; it's likely that even our entire plan is crystal clear to them! Otherwise, how could they have inserted themselves so deftly behind our lines to snipe at us?
In the next instant, those squids soaring through the downpour suddenly accelerated, one already pouncing right in front of the truck.
Giving them no chance to evade, it rapidly expanded and exploded.
Firelight burst forth!
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